Saturday, 24 December 2016

VIEWING BEN-HUR IN A WORLD OF STRIFE

Ben-Hur had
to be seen again! I’m sure that all belonging to my age bracket would remember
Charlton Heston’s movie, but then in the early 1970’s, I was too young to
understand the actual story and significance of ‘Ben-Hur – A Tale of the Christ’.

Lew
Wallace’s best-selling American novel, first published in 1880 has left its’
mark forever and ever. Obviously! A Tale of the Christ could never grow old.
And I’m sure that for every generation it will continue to hold the heart of every viewer.

Back then in
the seventies, it was the handsome Charlton Heston, the chariot race, the
leprosy cave and the face of Christ that made up for the attraction; but now
this time in 2016, Ben-Hur pinched my heart where it needed to.

To go back
to the origins of the story, the writer Lew Wallace was not a warm or a hot
Christian. In fact, he didn’t know much about his own faith. All he did then
was to attend the Methodist Church without any relationship with his creator. The
world today is full of men and women who are regular visitors to churches,
temples and mosques and yet have no relationship with their originator. The
wars are proof of what I express.

However, coming
back to Wallace, he was a writer and wanted to write a never to be forgotten best-seller
with Jesus Christ as the chief protagonist. You can imagine how unprepared the
nineteenth century American reader was for such an idea.

Knowing
full-well then that Jesus Christ would not sell to the people of the time,
Wallace thought of a different approach. He told the Tale of the Christ through
the eyes of a young Jewish Nobel. What turned out to be wonderful was that in
the course of researching material for his work, he was at least motivated
enough to read the Bible. He confessed later that he had been led towards
‘Absolute belief in God and the divinity of Christ’.

How
wonderful it is today, to understand this beautiful story as an allegory on
Revenge and Mercy. These abstract principles come to the viewer in the
characters of Judah Ben-Hur and his brother like friend, Messala.

The world
today has many such brothers gone astray due to fanaticism of beliefs and
revenge of different faiths.

It’s the
‘your knife, my back’ and ‘my gun, your head’ principle operating everywhere
around. As human beings, we were obviously not meant to hurt or hate, but to love
and care. The news channels in our living rooms though, showcase the most
unlivable scenes to our eyes.

We have been
pushed so far away to the wall in stories of hate, that we have nowhere else to
move and instead console ourselves that any amount of blood, noise or trouble
cannot rob us of our peace; for peace is that within us that allows us to
remain calm in spite of the horrible mess all around.

Acceptance
has become our nature. We continue to live accepting blood spills and hate
overflows with the ‘what can we do?’ shrug of our shoulders.

In a way, we
are all modern Judahs (this time it is Jack Huston), loving and supporting
peace but turning a blind eye to various atrocities as long as they don’t touch
our families.

Everywhere
we see violence, we know full well that it is only an unnecessary holding on to
revenge. Like the characters of Judah and Messala, are we then racing ourselves
to death, to fuel a worthless pride of retaliation?

The hopeful
part though in our surroundings of betrayals is, that we too like Judah,
unknowingly come across the knowledge of the Conscience which offers us a sip
of forgiveness when we are falling with hatred growing out of revenge; like a
cross on our frail shoulders. It is in our power then, to drink from that cup
of mercy which will help us flush out the indigestible residue of hatred.
Whether we sip it or not, is what will determine our future. Ironically though,
it’s our tragedy that in spite of being surrounded by the fluid of freedom, we
continue to hold on to our cross, tying our self to it in fear of drowning in
the ocean of love.

The epitome
of the movie this time is Andra Day’s soundtrack, ‘The Only Way Out’; the words
tear through the heart searching its origins of love, and knowledge of mercy.
It reminds us of how deaf we have gone, to be unable to hear love because of the
noise war makes. It throws us down on our knees to let ourselves out of the
cage of revenge and recognize that the only way out is mercy. Andra tries to
sing loud enough above the sound of war, for otherwise the people as usual will
not be able to hear love since they are at war. As always, ‘...revenge is so loud and the drums are so proud. But oh, I’m in a
cage and I hear mercy say I’m here now and it’s the only way out’. Seeing
Ben-Hur in the twenty-first century will, I can only hope make all warring nations put
down their weapons of war and allow mercy to fill their hearts and let the
world continue to be; because after all, that is ‘The Only Way Out’.

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Ruby Malshe

Ruby Malshe lives in India, teaches at Wilson College in Mumbai and believes there is a story unfolding every minute somewhere in this beautiful world. One only needs to be attentive to notice it, hold it in ones heart and hum it out to listening ears. The world may in its turn catch it, let it seep deep within and allow it to grow beautifully.